The Lost Bowman
by Crna Strela
Summary: I used LN as reference for this story, so the reader that completely oblivious about SAO need to be at least read the manga or watch the anime. This story has nearly nothing to do with Kirito and his friends. A young novelist, Yukimura Ando (24) trapped inside this game of death with his nephew Yukimura Akio (16) and Yukimura Kana (12). Together they tried to survive. Please enjoy
1. Prologue: Beginning

**Beginning~**

Aincrad, a world inside the infamous VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) with 10,000 users who played the game. It supposed to be a fun and thrilling, however that incident which announced the entrapment of ten thousands people inside that virtual world has changed this game into the game of death.

My name is Yukimura Ando (24), a novelist that specialized in mystery genre. I'm not that famous, but at least my books still sell well. In order to relieve boredom after one of my book finished, I went to the nearby gamestore and bought a PS V, the newest gaming console that lots of people use nowadays.

After bought that and played few of its games for several months, I got tired and started to get bored again by the lack of the challenge. I dreamed to move my body freely in game and determine the outcome of battle through pure body and soul skills rather than just relying on character skills and button mashing.

Then at August 2022, I heard about this game from my nephew, Sword Art Online or SAO, the first and revolutionary VRMMORPG. My nephew Akio, was one of the beta tester of that game. He excitingly told me about how awesome that game is with shiny eyes when I went into his house that day in order to get a novel material that my brother, Akio's father possess. I could ask him to send it to my place but I thought that's rude, besides playing with my nephew and niece would relieve the stresses from my job. After talking a lot about that game, I got interested with it and did a research about it.

Apparently I need to get the Nerve Gear which is sold together with the game in order to play it. Since the beta phase has already ended, I need to wait until they launched live server. I found out that will be only 10,000 Nerve Gear that would be sold at 6 November 2022. I planned to do midnight line-up but since it might caused ruckus, I need to find another way.

Then at the end of October I was assigned as the writer of a famous romance fantasy manga by my editor, Shiba-san. He said the mangaka, Asakushi-sensei really loves my works and want to collaborate with me by creating a Light Novel based on his manga.

Since I didn't mind and I thought it was a good idea to promote my other books, I agreed when Shiba-san told me about this join-project. I also thought that was a good reason for me to made Shiba-san bought a copy of SAO by lining-up from midnight. Firstly, Shiba-san refused, but when I told him it was an important material that I need in order to do this collaboration project with Asakushi-sensei, he finally gave up and promised to line up from evening.

I felt little bad for sending Shiba-san there, but that feeling suddenly disappeared when I remembered about his nagging when it was close to deadline. Then, I spent that week calmly and sometimes went to Kyuudo Dojo (Archery Range) that my friend owns. I'm a hired instructor there and that's where I got income outside from novelist activities.

Then that day finally arrived. When I wrote the storyboard for Asakushi-sensei, Shiba-san entered my room. He looks like a zombie when he handed me the SAO package and the Nerve Gear. I thanked him and apologized for made him went through that situation.

After short chat, he went back to his house and told me that he wanted to sleep first before checking the storyboard. When I make sure he finally closed the door, I furiously opened the package and activated the Nerve Gear. I did some installation and reading the guide before finally start up and get ready. I saw the clock at my desktop PC, 5 more minutes before the server online. I really got impatient that it felt longer than it supposed to be. I played few MMO when I was young, though I stopped played them when my workload as Novelist and Kyuudo instructor increased dramatically. My first MMORPG after several years is a Virtual Reality one, there's no way I won't get this excited.

I sent an e-mail to Akio and told him to gave me his IGN (In Game Name) so I could contact him instantly when I finally get inside. He replied instantly and told me to quickly message him once I got online.

The clock at my PC finally showed two zeroes at the minute mark. I quickly put my Nerve Gear and said the keyword…

"LINK START!"


	2. Chapter 1: Death Game

**Death Game~**

November 6th 2022, I still can't believe what just happened. This VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online has just turned into malicious game of death. The cries of ten thousands player were echoed everywhere. The girl and the boy behind me held my hand. I could sense the tremble of their body. Even though I felt anxious I have no other way than trusting the red blood GM (Game Master), Kayaba Akihiko.

Few hours ago, I was in full dive and went to SAO login screen. When gender selection appeared I unhesitantly picked male and customized my character appearance. For character name, I use "Strela" the nickname of my characters from couple of MMO that I played several years ago. It was also my pen-name as novelist. I use that so the people I knew would notice me immediately.

"It's also an opportunity to meet up with my old friends again" I thought.

Then through the weird sensation that similar to diving into ocean of light, I finally logged in.

As I opened my eyes, the incredible world showed to my vision. The game that close to reality, a Virtual Reality. the detailed graphics, the avatar of player that explored the town, the smooth bgm that played at the town. It's all really impressive that I stunned for couple of seconds.

Fascinated, I didn't realize that there are 2 players who called my name. then finally I noticed when one of them showed his face to block my view.

"Huwaaaah!" I screamed and instinctively the face out of the blank. Then something purple blocked my fist, a system warning.

"Jii-san, you don't need to be freaked out like that you know?" The young guy in front of me blurted out. He has the appearance like a character from really old manga that I read. Shoulder long brown hair, blue eyes, and slender body. Since he called me Jii-san he must be Akio.

"You scared me out Akio." I put my hand on my chest as if to relieve my heartbeat, though there is no such thing in this virtual world. However second later I asked about something.

"How did you know this is me?"

"That spiked white hair and dark skin" he replied.

"Nobody knows that character anymore, so we just assumed that it was you Jii-chan" The short girl behind Akio also replied.

"Eh, Kana? You also play this?" I asked the little girl bit surprised.

Kana is my niece, Akio's sister whom next month will turn 13. She is one of my pupils at Kyuudo. Although I've told her that Kyuudo going to halt her body growth rate, she insisted to do it. As result, she is now one of the shortest girl at her school. She seems to be addicted to games lately due to her brother influences.

"Of course! I don't want Nii-chan to play a good game all by himself."

Her avatar looked like a little girl and that impression reinforced by the childish pony tail. Except for her hair color and face, her appearance wasn't that far from her real life appearance.

"Hey I went through the trouble to buy you this game even though I already have one, you should've thanked me." Akio interrupted.

"Eh? We lined up together right? So it's even." Kana smiled to her brother.

I watched the sibling and grin appeared at my lips, they are refreshing to watch since I won't get bored easily. Playing together with the two inside this enormous world certainly would be fun, or so I thought.

We soon get prepared and go outside the city to train. The field outside is really magnificent. Although it's only system that sent electrical signal to our brain, it is still looks so awesome that I hardly believe this is a game.

"Jii-san come on" The male swordsman, slapped my back, a little of my hp seems to get chipped.

"Wait, Akio you just damaged me!" I retorted.

"Not Akio, my name is Shura here, beside there's no way you will get damaged by simple slap like that" he grinned.

"And mine is Alice, nice to meet you Jii-chan" the little girl with long spear also replied.

"Troublesome, oh well then call me Strela"

"Anyway what are you going to do with that dagger?" Shura asked me

"Isn't that obvious? I think this one is the easiest to use."

"You can have sword, mace, spear, yet you picked a dagger from the very beginning?"

"It can't be helped, why they don't have long range weapon like longbow or crossbow?" I tried to resist.

"The game name should've given you the clue, Jii-chan" Alice interrupted.

"Why don't you call me Strela or Strela-jii Alice-chan?" I muttered and walked toward the nearby monster, a boar looking one.

"But there are spear, mace, flail, and other not-sword related weapons" after I finished the sentence, I tried to slash and kick the boar like what I've seen in action movie, only to get myself thrown away by the boar charge. I could hear the sibling chuckled behind me and I who tried to cover my embarrassment...

"What the hell? I thought it was the lowest level monster?" Used an argument to cover it.

"Yeah, but Jii-san you need a sword skill in order to deal heavy damage that could one-hit it" the swordsman replied by holding his laughter.

"You didn't explain about that!" I retorted and tried to run away from the boar that chased me.

"Sorry Jii-san, I forgot to explain about that!"

"Onii-chan told me about it yesterday though"

"Don't just chatting around there, help me!" I ran to them with very uncool way, chased by a low level monster and begged for help to my nephew and niece.

Then, Shura grabbed his one-handed sword above his head and blue light started to glow from the sword. Alice also grabbed her long spear firmly and red light started to glow from the spear as well.

"Heyaaah!"

"Eiii!"

The sibling released the attack at the same time to the boar that chased me. Now I pitied the boar as it was struck by 2 powerful attacks, its hp instantly went to zero. The window that showed gained experience, items, and cols appeared. I closed it after saw it for awhile and feels like I'm really playing an MMORPG. Due to the massive magnificent world that crossed the border between reality and imagination of me, I can't really think this as a game. Now I'm glad that I'm sure this is really a game.

"Nice job Ka- I mean Alice" the swordsman high-five the lancer little girl and Alice did the same to her older brother.

"You guys should've done it earlier." I complained, though I'm not really complained.

"Sorry Jii-san your figures that run around when got chased by a Frenzy Boar seriously funny, I should have taken a picture" he held his stomach and started to laugh again.

"Arghhh whatever, explain about this sword skill" I acted irritated in order to disguise my embarrassment.

I did what Shura told me, equipping the skills into the skill slot. Even though we as lvl 1 have 2 skill slots, he told us to not put anything else outside the main weapon skill yet.

"Decide it slowly, you don't want to get screwed up that you need a lots of effort to fix your characters combat skill rite?" that's what he said.

That's why I equipped one handed dagger and Alice also equipped one-handed lance to comply with our main-weapons, Shura of course using one-handed sword.

After few minutes of set-up, our party of 3 continued to hunt at the beginner hunting ground for few hours and gained one level. When the sunset appeared, I remembered about the appointment with Shiba-san that I've made earlier. The time in Aincrad flows with the same rate with real life, that's why if it's already twilight, it means that the real life is at evening as well.

"Ah sorry, I have appointment with Shiba-san later so I have to log off now."

"Eh? But I thought your latest book already done and you have about 3 months before start another project?" Shura protested.

"Ah sorry it's a secret project, I'll tell you when it's official." As I said that I manipulate the window awkwardly.

"Then see you later Jii-san, don't overwork again okay" Alice bid me farewell, she must've referred to the time when I collapsed due to writing all the day without eating or drink something.

"I won't then I'll be off, don't play this game too much you-" I stopped in the middle of my speech because I couldn't found the option that supposed to be there.

Shura and Alice asked me what's wrong and got closer, and then they immediately understood my situation. The three of us looked each other and opened our window together. It appeared that they also have the same problem with me.

"What's the meaning of this?" Shura muttered with anxiety, I then continue from what he left.

"The log-out option, is not there"

**_~To be continued~_**


	3. Chapter 2: Crossing Point

**Crossing Point~**

"Then it concludes the official Sword Art Online tutorial, good luck to all of you, players." With those words, the hooded figure disappeared from the sky and the surrounding scenery is no longer tinted by bloody red color.

Few seconds later, several screams can be heard. We all got panicked and don't know what to do. The chaotic town square that filled by about 10,000 players, no if what Kayaba Akihiko said about the death of 600 players was right, then in this square there should be around 9,400 players remained.

Over nine thousands people screaming, yelling, cursing, and crying. The town square wasn't comfortable for us to think about our situation now and it got worsened by Alice's condition. Shura was trembling as well but Alice looked like she would collapse any time. So both of us took her to the nearby inn and rented a room for her.

Once we got there, we laid her body to the bed and sat on the floor. There was no chair inside the room that rented for 100 col per night. Silence surrounded the room for several minutes. We still confused and can't believed that such thing happened. Our souls, trapped inside this game which can't be called as a normal game anymore. Once our virtual health reached zero, the nerve gear will fry our brain and kill us. Same thing would occur if someone forcefully tried to disconnect us from service or remove the nerve gear from our body. I think about our situation and can't say anything to my nephew who sat right in front of me, which is beside the bed.

"Jii-san." Surprisingly, the swordsman, who now having his real life appearance talked first. His thin body that only as tall as my shoulder trembled a bit. His wavy black short hair and his dimple that would appear if he smiled showed how he is just a high school student that loves game. He's not that handsome, yet it seems that he is quite popular at his school despite the fact he is a hardcore gamer. His appearance now looks exactly the same with his appearance when I saw him a week ago. Although of course it's kind of polygonal.

"Do you think we can still go back?" Even though I didn't say anything in response, he continued. I understood what he implied, in this game called Sword Art Online, we were imprisoned by the hi-tech game machine which cut off our senses from real world, Nerve Gear. Should our virtual health reached zero, we are going to lose our real life as well. Shura also said that SAO has high difficulty compared to usual MMO, so to clear the whole 100 floors as presquite to clear the game, is most likely impossible.

Moreover, in order to clear a floor by the safest possible way, they need to be at least 10 levels above the floor level. So if one is about to join the raid group to clear this floor, they need to be at least lvl 10. I, Shura, and Alice were level 2 as result of our hunting before system announcement. We also have someone with knowledge of this game as a beta tester. However, even he was not confident, how could a mere newbie like me can be sure?

Yet…

"Of course! No matter how long it is, we will get out from here!"

I can't be pessimistic in front of my nephew who was looking for support. I sense a change in his eyes when I said that to encourage him. Those eyes no longer show trace of despair.

"It would be troublesome if we don't get out quickly though." He smiled.

"Well, it's not like we have lover that wait for us at the other side" I teased him to cheer up the atmosphere.

"Shiba-san is waiting for your new manuscript."

"Uh… don't remind me to him" It seriously reminded me to the point where he was looked like demon starving for my manuscript when I accidentally forgot the deadline.

"Besides, I have a girlfriend that will wait for me." He continued

"Ah I se- WHAT?"

I knew that he is popular but I didn't know that a girl will actually going out with him.

"Well it's been 2 months since we started to going out."

"This boy!" I strangled my nephew due to jealously and admiration. A strange feeling seemed to be overflowing inside my heart. I feel that if we're together, clearing this game is not impossible anymore.

"Hey, Jii-san it hurt!" He smiled and said something that impossible as in this game we won't feel any pain no matter how strong we got hit. I guess he just wanted to express his feeling.

I released my nephew and then talk with serious intonation.

"Then what's the plan Akio?"

"Jii-san, call me Shura."

"If nobody around let me call you and Kana by your real name, if I don't do that, I might forget my own name."

I must be looked depressed when I said that as Akio looked at me with worried stare.

"Don't worry I'm fine." I patted my nephew's head as I said that.

"Okay, then let's discuss about the plan Jii-san."

I nodded as signal for him to continue.

"Since you are familiar with MMORPG, you can tell that in order to survive in this world is to gain level and money or in this game, col."

I nodded again.

"It's been nearly an hour since the system announcement, so I guess people who planned to clear this game and the one who don't want to be left behind are forming parties to start hunting the mobs. Beginner area is going to be cramped."

I recalled the memories of the old day whenever a game just opened their service or when it opened a new server. There would be a massive amount of players at the starting points. Some of them either driven by irritation or just a real asshole, started to steal the kills from another person. Some game has fixed experience points rate which make the last hitter of the mobs will gain all the exp. However the developer newer games realized this problem and remake the system into percentage ration of exp gain equals to your attack to that mob.

For example, a monster would give you 400 exp points if you take out its 100% HP, then someone steal the finishing blow which is about 5% of the monster remaining HP. The one who deal the finishing blow will only get 5% of the experience or 20 points while the one who fought from the beginning will get the 95% of the experience which is 380 points. This is the system which SAO adapt.

However problems still occur. As the highest damage inflictor would be given the maximum amount of items drop and experience, some people going to wait for someone to attract the attention of the mob and then unleash a high damage sword skill that would usually do 1 hit at the low level mobs. They can level up without any risk to get killed by accident. After that they would usually run away.

"But I'm sure 90% of the players who decided to fight would form a party rather than solo hunting and kill steal the people around." Akio seemed to understand what I was thinking that time.

"Still they would form party of 5 or 6, to hunt the level 1 mobs because of safety reasons. Even though they all know with party of 2 or 3 or even solo it, you would level up faster."

"I get what you mean, so we need to find a good hunting spot that has few players around right?"

He nodded, his expression became stern when he continue.

"I know some, but if we want to go there we need to be at least level 3 for safety reason. Jii-san, do you confident with dagger or should we find other weapon that fits you?" he asked me with serious expression. It seemed that he don't want to think this as a game anymore.

"It's alright, I feel safer using this rather than big weapons." I smiled confidently to calm him.

"I see, the let's prepare ourselves we are going to leave starting city and heads to the hunting ground." He operated his menu and equipped his one-handed sword.

I nodded and silently turned my gaze to the little girl who was laid on the bed while I operated my menu to equip my dagger as well. Akio seemed to understand my feeling as he stood up and stroke the hair of his little sister.

"Let's make her a manufacturer, maybe smithing is not possible but sewing, leather working, and cooking should be no problem."

"Yeah, let me become the blacksmith instead." I continued in agreement, smile formed on Akio's face.

"See you later Kana."

We bade farewell to the sleeping cutie and head toward the exit of the room.

_**~To be continued~**_

_Author note: Uwaaaah I don't realized that we may put author note at our story (I won't be banned because of this right?)_

_Anyway maybe this is really late but thanks for read my story and you might wanted me to be clear about few things from the first chapter. Okay here I go:_

_1) Jii-san/Jii-chan is short form of Ojii-san/Ojii-chan, Japanese equivalent of Uncle or older male above 20 years old. Not to be confused with another Jii-san/Jii-chan that has the meaning of Grandpa. Derp Japanese surely complicated._

_2) If you still don't realized yet, the first avatar of Strela before system announcement is FSN Archer and the first avatar of Shura is Masaomi Kido. Okay maybe you guys think his eyes isn't green but it's green for me!_

_3) Alice real life appearance is simple, flat chested Taneshima Popura from Working and with shorter hair too._

_4) Some people might be asking "Wasn't one-handed sword is the initial equipment?"  
Well I'm not sure how to answer this, but remember how Klein get one-handed curved sword instead of one-handed sword? I think we can either buy it cheaply or pick initial weapon from the character creation screen. _

_5) Ando said that he is not that famous but he __**IS **__famous to the level that hardcore mystery maniac know about his name and his appearance._

6) "_Strela" is a Serbian for "Arrow". No I'm not Serb._

_Okay maybe that's all, I hope it clarify many thing. If you have another thing that wanted to be clarified feel free to ask via PM or review or something similar. So see you later at the next chapter._


	4. Chapter 3: Moonlight Shadow

_I got distracted easily which make my chapter updates slow as heck (DAMN YOU DRAGON NEST!). Sorry about that and please enjoy this slightly longer chapter :) _

**Moonlight Shadow~**

The Clock at the right bottom of my vision showed 23.11. It has been 3 hours since we started to hunt in this dark forest. We've gained another level, yet the object of our, or rather Akio's quest, is still not dropped. We need to retrieve a Little Nephent Ovule from a [Little Nephent] with bloomed flower. We grinded as a party of 2 and occasionally met other party as well. Thanks to Akio's searching skill, we managed to avoid the misunderstanding of kill steal. Although I've mentioned that I'll become a blacksmith, since smithing skills proficiency won't increase by battles, there's no need for me to equip it now. That's the reason why I equipped acrobatic in the second skill slot aside to attack and defend efficiently.

Then after we killed the three hundred something little nephents another one spawned about 20 meters from us, I saw flower bloomed on his head.

"LUCKY!" we shouted at the same time and dashed toward it.

This was our second hunting session so our equipment durability was still pretty much. Even so, we need to dodge accordingly because our hp was at 60% after clearing the ambush of 5 nephents that suddenly spawned around us. It seemed the POP rate had recovered back after lots of people depleted it. The sudden spawn of nephent with flower can't be neglected even by one second because there might be someone else who are going to aim it. That's why we have no time to recover ourselves with potion since the potions in SAO doesn't heal instantly.

"Jii-san this one is slightly stronger, don't forget to switch!"

"Okay! I'll be the forward first!" I replied and increase my dashing speed to outrun Akio. Maybe due to me using dagger and Akio was using one handed sword, or maybe because my agi is higher than his, or maybe because our real life ability, or maybe the combination of them, that I be able to outrun him easily.

I jumped above in order to dodge the vine that slashed wildly toward me. The jump was high enough to pass the nephent's head and landed behind it. My Acrobatic proficiency was quite high to make this possible. After I landed behind it, the plant monster turned around and started to attack me as I expected. I dodged the vine slashes and corrosive fluid that it released before I released the basic dagger sword skill, Thrust to its head.

"Switch!" I yelled to Akio and retreated, then I took a potion from my waist pocket and gulped it in one go. I ignore the awfully bitter taste and prepared to go again.

As expected from a beta tester, Akio did a great job of dodging and parrying the little nephent's attacks. He then unleashed a sword skill after slashing it 3 times, basic one handed sword skill Slant. A diagonal slash hit the nephent's weak spot and its hp now down to 40%. The nephent with flower was screaming in agony and furiously slashed Akio with his vine but before that Akio said "Switch!" and I parried the barrage of attacks before it hit the delayed Akio, during the process I slashed the vine thrice. After the wave of attacks finished, I jumped to avoid the corrosive fluid that it spat and then I stabbed its head in while airborne. When I landed it turned around toward me but I put every force I have to my right foot and dashed toward it to do another Thrust. It seemed my attack dealt critical hit as the little nephent's hp dropped into around 15%.

"Akio now!" I yelled as I confirmed my delay. Without waiting, he dashed and do another slant toward that plant monster. Its hp finally depleted and shattered into countless blue polygons. An round white object dropped, I grabbed it and passed it to Akio.

"Finally we got it." I said that as I seriously bored by seeing [Little Nephent] over and over. I relieved that we finally finished the quest to get Anneal Blade, a good one-handed sword that can be used up to 3rd floor if enhanced correctly. With that, we don't have to worry about frequently changing weapons and depleted our money by weapons shopping.

"Okay, now let's return and report to the NPC so you can claim that sword."

He nodded and we walked back to the town without letting our guard down. After killed another 10 [Little Nephent] that obstructed our way, we finally reached the village of ~Horunka~. We walked toward one of the house at the center of the village. Akio, went inside while I waited outside as there was no point for me to tag along, besides if I wanted to get a better dagger I have to do what Akio said, collecting some reliable party members. Since most people were here because of Anneal Blade quest, it goes without saying that 90% of them were one-handed sword users and most likely beta-tester as well. Scanned through people who passed by, I finally approached a party of 3 that looked like already finished the quest.

"Excuse me."

As I approached the group, they all were focusing their sight to me. All of them wore leather armor that can be bought here. I noticed only 2 of them that used one handed sword while another one held a spear.

"Yes, is there anything I can help you with?" The somewhat handsome guy with one handed sword replied. I saw a Buckler dangling behind him, his Leather Armor looked bit shiny and sturdier than mine.

"Would you like to fight Avexar?" I replied.

The "Avexar" here refers to a werewolf mini-boss which spawned each per month and today supposed to be full moon, the time where it spawned. It dropped a lot of things that I and they need, so they shouldn't have turned down my offer, but…

"Sorry, I won't."

A simple yet harsh word came out just like that.

"If you are a beta tester too, you should have aware that Avexar's attack is high and extremely fast. Sure it dies easily, but I won't risk my life just for items like that."

That exclamation was to be expected, maybe that mini-boss was hunted a lot at beta phase since at that time, this game is just a normal game.

"Besides…" He then continued.

"If it's only 4 of us, it woud be a sure wipe out, not to mention that I'm the only tank build here."

"Make it 5 with my presence and you'll also get another tank, furthermore I believe that friend of yours can wield a shield too." As I turned around, my nephew stood behind me without me noticing.

"Ak- Shura." I nearly mentioned his RL name, luckily I quickly swallowed it.

"Shura? Are you that Shura from beta?" That somewhat handsome sword user just suddenly lost his cool and happily got closer to Shura.

"E-eh? Who are you?" Shura stepped back for a bit, well that was understandable. If a guy suddenly got close to me I would step back as well.

"It's me -"

?

I didn't quite hear the last word because he said it in low voice but I saw Shura got surprised and he suddenly happy as he fist bumping that somewhat handsome sword user. It seemed both of them knew each other from the beta testing period.

"Well if it's you, I think we can do it, now we only need to get another member to complete our party size." His sentence implied that Shura was seriously dependable.

"About that, may I join?"

Suddenly another voice of guy was heard. All of us turned to the source of the voice which is at my right. There, we saw another unique looking guy. If Diabel has an appearance of Japanese host, this guy looked like a foreigner host. No, he is definitely a foreigner. Blonde hair and green colored iris with Hispanic trace at his face. I wondered what a foreigner did in the game where only Japanese may access. Wait he did speak Japanese to us.

"Ah, sorry my name is PoH, if you don't mind may I join your group?" perhaps he felt uncomfortable by our gaze toward him that he quickly explained his situation. It did work, his introduction shook off our fascination and we finally returned to our senses.

"O-oh no problem, it's kind of fortunate we got new member as soon as we wanted it." Shura answered him politely.

After that we formed a party, we set the item distribution as finder keeper. However we agreed that if someone gets something he don't need and other guy need we would give it away. We finished our potion restock and some other stuff before we headed toward the forest direction. It seemed the werewolf spawned not far from ~Horunka~. I glanced to the clock that located at the bottom right corner of my vision. It showed 01:48.

"It's already past midnight." I murmured as I checked the mailbox which is of course empty. Shura said he taught Kana, Alice how to send messages, so if there are no messages yet, it's highly possible she's not yet awakened.

"She's not messaging you as well Jii-san?"

Not wanting to worry my nephew any further, I only nodded. Right now we are going to challenge a mini-boss, we need to focus. Unnecessary worry would slow down our reaction and we might end up dead. Because despite the "Mini" word, [The Young Werewolf Avexar] is still a boss. Not to mention its attack is ferocious and awfully fast at some point, one simple mistake could kill you even if you are level 10. As for why we are challenging it with the cost of our life, [The Young Werewolf Avexar] drops are valuable despite it's only a level 2 mini-boss. Another reason is it only spawned when full-moon appeared which is today. It seemed the positioning of the sky objects were recreated at Aincrad as well. In other word, if you wanted to challenge it again you need to wait about month later. We are going to face another player who wanted to hunt it as well.

"We are close." Shura muttered.

Diabel nodded and signaled us to stop, a final briefing I guess.

"Okay we will do the final check. First check your potions and durability."

We all manipulated our menu to check our equipments durability and materializing some potions for quick access. While we did that, Diabel continued his briefing.

"We have 3 shielder, however the only one with agro skill is me, so I'll be the forward first if something happen and then going on standby after Pyara or Shura replace me." Shura and other Anneal Blade owner nodded. Diabel then glanced at me and PoH, the dagger users.

"Since this boss is extremely fast for low level characters, we need agi type player to stop its movement, sorry PoH and Strela-san, how much agi do you have?"

It is indeed impolite to ask about someone else stats but in this situation it was needed, besides he already apologized. Moreover he actually added honorific "san" to a game nickname, maybe because Shura called me "Jii-san", this Diabel guy is surprisingly polite. I didn't know if he was just role playing or really a chivalrious guy.

"Level 3 and I put all my points to AGI."

"I see, Strela-san?"

"Level 3 as well, but I spent 2 points to STR."

"I understand, then PoH try to stop the boss movement when he dashed, Strela-san, Shura, and Log please handle the small wolves."

We all nodded and unseathed our weapons. All 6 of us then charged toward the small opening in the forest where Avexar should have spawned…

_**~To be continued~**_

_AN:_

_Okay again I'm really sorry for the slow update since I got distracted easily by games, another fic, LN, anime, etc, etc, etc _

_I'll try to increase my pace in order to maintain your satisfaction _

_Anyway maybe some of you have realized but I did use some sign to distinguish few game terms for example:_

_Skill Name  
Item Name  
[Monster Name]  
~Town/Village/City Name~  
Yes I do aware I'm not creative at all but bear with it_

_Anyway I hope you guys enjoy this one and wait for Strela and the company (?) battle against the mini-boss :D  
_


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